Radiator, Slightly Burnt
by Itty Bitty Albatross
Summary: Percy and Nico's radiator is still not working, the floor is burnt, and the radiator is still not fixed, despite Leo's efforts. Sequel to 'Radiator'.


I was about to stick my key in my houses lock when I heard the clanging. I froze, well, froze _more._ I was already pretty frozen from standing out on the rickety stairs that led up to our second floor apartment, while the icy breeze blew straight through me. I held nearly still and listened for any more noises. Nico wouldn't be home now; he got home later than I did, regrettably. I unwrapped my stiff fingers from around the doorknob, slid Riptide out of my pocket and uncapped it. Only then did I unlock and open the door, and slide inside.

The house was frigid, hardly any warmer than the outside. The radiator must have stopped, yet again. It was a sad reflection on my life that I was more miffed by the radiator than by the fact that somebody must have busted into my house. Speaking of which…

I whipped around the corner to my left, where the sounds had been coming from, sword drawn and out.

"Ahh!" I declared, as I pointed my blade at the intruder, like a true hero.

"Ahh!" The intruder yelled back, dropped his wrench.

Wrench?

Leo.

"What are you doing here?" I demand. Leo Valdez was lying on my floor, slowly burning a scorch mark into my floor, while pulling apart parts of my heating appliance.

"Fixing the radiator, man!" He responded, giving me a 'duh' look.

"Umm, thanks…?" I offered. I didn't call him, and Nico didn't say anything, which meant I was curious and slightly worried about how he knew our radiator wasn't working.

"Yeah, man, friends help each other out." Leo insisted, giving me a crooked grin from the ground.

"Do you want a sandwich?" I finally offered, after a moment of me awkwardly standing there.

"Oh, don't go to any trouble!" He chirped.

I made a couple of sandwiches while he tinkered away. I poked my head in a couple of times, while spreading mayonnaise on the ham sandwiches, but couldn't make heads or tails of what he was doing. There were a lot of wires, and pipes, and a couple of little round metal bits. It also looked as though, in addition to the wood floor, he had scorched a couple of parts on the heater. He always had that trouble—he started working on a project and his body temperature went up.

"How'd you know we were having trouble with it?" I asked, as politely as I could. Seriously, how do you ask something like that? 'Hey Leo, is it an inherent trait of the kids of Hephaestus that they always know when a friends having machine troubles?'.

"Well," he drawled, pulling a bolt out of his mouth, "Annabeth was talking to Rachel and she said that when she came over for dinner the other day, your guys' heater was making weird sounds, and that it went out. Rachel told Connor Stoll, Connor told Travis, who told me, and I figured if it was acting up on Tuesday then it surely would have gotten worse by now. As neither of you would be able to figure out how to fix it, and I doubted either of you would've actually gotten someone else to fix it," he slid the last bolt into place and hopped up, "I'd have to come make sure you two don't freeze into little half-blood ice cubes."

"Thanks." He accepted gratitude and the sandwich from me with a smile, apparently not caring about his slightly greasy hands.

"Think of it as payback for Di Angelo's help last week, at the garage." My mind immediately began floundering. Nico knew less about machines and engines than I did, because he was still adjusting to the new technology of the age. I wouldn't have thought Leo would have let him anywhere near the garage he owned, even if Nico would have wanted to be there, which was pretty unlikely. After a moment or two it clicked, when I remembered Leo having trouble with a lizard-like monster, and Nico being called in to help get it finished off.

"I didn't realize that the monster was at your garage." I had been working that day. I work at an aquarium at Seventh and Newcastle. It's the biggest source of water (that isn't polluted river water) in the area. The hours are steady, the aquarium takes good care of its animals, and the people are nice enough. I'm not one of the top dogs, but I get paid well enough and I like it. If no one's looking I can surreptitiously use my powers to hurry things along. Anyway, that day I was re-routing the shark tank when I got a text from Leo.

'ugly big lizard attacking street need some help. call plz.' It had been sent to most of us (us being the surviving demigods who maintained contact after the war). Thanks to Annabeth and the collective brainpower of the Athena and Hephaestus cabins, cell phones were capable of being used without drawing monsters. Sometimes. It didn't always work, so we usually only used them in emergencies. I knew that if I couldn't help out with this nasty problem, someone else could. Nico, who got a surprisingly good signal in the underworld, had given Leo a hand. I vaguely remembered him coming home that night to collapse on the couch and mutter profanities into the pillows. He did that pretty often, though, so I stopped making a note of it.

"Yeah, he took out a couple of cars and the wall to the left of the door, but nothing I couldn't handle." Leo commented, pulling me out of my mental tangent. "Thanks for the grub!" He slid all his tools back into his tool belt, eyed the Leo-shaped scorch on the floor, and saluted me.

"Anytime." I responded, before cringing at myself. I did not, in fact, want Leo dropping in 'anytime' for food. That could get uncomfortable.

"I've done what I can for that radiator. If you ask me, though, I'd say just put the poor thing out of its misery and get a new one. It's a fire hazard, as it is. It'll hold out for another week or two, but after that…" he cautioned.

"Noted." I sighed.

Leo nodded and left, leaving me to scuff my foot at the thin layer of charcoal-floor and glare at the radiator.

There were a dozen reason why I didn't want a new radiator, some of which being 'too lazy to put new one in' and 'likes living in danger'. The last one was obvious; I was a child of the Big Three, living with yet another child of the Big Three who had a nasty temper and a habit of bringing home dead people from the subway, in one of the most monster-infested cities in America.

In the grand scheme of things, a radiator that kept dying paled in comparison.

However, at two a.m. the next morning, in the fuzzy light of the overhead, the radiator seemed like the biggest threat present. I was scowling at it, standing a few feet away, hoping it would just get intimidated and keep working after I turned it on this time. Nico had curled his arms around my torso and was leaning on my back, presumably thinking of when we should fix the problem. Nope, strike that, he had fallen asleep leaning on me.

I forced the heated water through the pipes, gave it one last wolf-glare of death, and led a sleepy Nico back to the mountain of blankets.

"I'm starting to think it's your death aura that's killing that thing." I teased lethargically after I turned out the light.

"Not hardly." Then, after a moment, "Why is there a burn mark in the shape of a man on our floor?"

"The flaming wonder dropped by to fix the heat."

"It's not fixed."

"Yes, I know."

We both sighed in sync.

"We need to fix it." He pushed his face in the pillow alongside my neck.

"Yes."

"Tomorrow."

No response.

"Nico?"

No response.

I chuckled.

"Night, Nico."


End file.
